Before even digging into the meat and potatoes of Necromantia's latest, could someone possibly riddle me this: what the fuck is going on with this record's sound? I'm as big a fan of primitive production as the next guy, but this takes the piss; just because a band was borne of the tape-trading scene, doesn't necessarily mean that they need to make their music sound akin to the by-product of at least a dozen TDK-90 transfers. Musically, _TSoLSH_ is spectacularly flawed as well. Electing to blend avant-garde symphonic sequences with blasting black metal, songs like "Order of the Black Sphinx" and "The Invisible Empire" sound laboured and confused, lacking either the intensity or atmosphere to make up for the fact that the riffs sound thoroughly recycled. If this was truly meant to be a "fist in the face of society", Necromantia have fair bit of creative bulking up to do before they're likely to be anything more than a mild irritation.